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looks okay at firsttil you look in the window and find this:and a second, more obvious jar -

jars were shaken immediately after inoculation by spore syringe through the smaller of two holes. injection port sellotaped after innoc. so obviously it's coming in the top, but where? can it come through the tyvek? (2 layers, thin kite-making tyvek). off the sellotape? anything i should check?

i've lost quite a few recently to this, or a lookalike. any suggestions? i have no flowhood yet.

Could be getting in through the big hole onto they tyvek then after shaking the trich. spores found their way in through the innoc. hole in the tyvek....under the lid....try putting a peice of polyfill in the air exchange hole...

--------------------Live each day like it will be your last, tomorrow my never come.
SporeSmart

It could also be from spores in the air space or in the threads on the lid that survived sterilization and became airborn after being shaken. Spores could also have been sucked in to fill the low pressure from cooling gasses after sterilization.

Make a jar the same way you have been, but do not inoculate. If it contaminates, then the problem is with your filter or sterilization technique.

Make a jar the same way you have been, but cover the filter with something airtight. Do not inoculate. If it contaminates, then the prbolem is with your sterilization technique.

Hey Shirly; I thought I'd throw a couple cents in here, as usual Suess and I are on similar tracks. . .

IME mold spores do not survive PC'ing in quart jars [assuming PC'ing done properly]; Bacillus endospores [wet spot] are far more likely to. Mold [again, just my opinion] is a result of either poor air quality during inoculation or more often, poor air quality during the COOLING process. I believe this is an often under-appreciated stage of substrate preparation.

As jars go from hot to cool, all of the inner air space of both the PC and the jars themselves is replaced by *outside* air. The filters are there to theoretically filter the new air that enters the jars when cooling. The vast majority of non-inoculation-related mold contamination can be fixed by cooling the PC in as clean of an area as possible.

If the problem involves most/all jars, and is not just a sporadic thing, a couple of negative controls can serve you well;